Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/249

 g>s. XL MARCH 28, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

241

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1903.

CONTENTS. -No. 274.

NOTES : Seventeenth-Century Book Sale, 241 "Slough ": its Etymology Bibliography of Dibrlin, 243 William Barnes, 245-A rthur O'Connor Litt'e Wild Street Chapel, Drury Lane, 2 16.

QUEKIE3 :-" Overslaugh "-Arms of Boroughs and Dio- ceses Trevelyan Legend- Capture of Cadiz in 1589 Sir Tobie Matthew Schulze, Organ-builder Hedgehog. 247 Archer Fani'ly Seneschal Seaborne Family Lon- doners of Char es II. 'e Time Map Queries Bibliographies Wanted" Dngnoper "Hops 4 Quarterly ' on Browning "To skin"=to hasten Drew Family, 24S 'She Sto ps to Conquer' "Wai k," " Wene," and ' Maike "-' John Barleycorn 'The Christening Door The Experimental Gardens, Gale Ionian Road, 249.

RBPLIRS : Shakespeare's Seventy-sixth Sonnet, 249 Dis- mantled Priory of Black Canons, 251 Craigcrook, 252 Goths and Huns " C.I. F." Hangman Stones, 253 Zodiac Luck Money D'Kwes's Portrait of Cotton "Th>u unrelenting fast" Green an Unlucky Colour- Queen Anne Bvron, 254 Last of the Pre-Victorian M.P.s French Phrase Laconic Prayer, 255 Bezique Essex in Ireland" Such spotless honour," &c. Posts in Early Times "Tandem," 256-Precedence Mistress of Charles I. Verses ascribed to Longfellow and Others, 257 Kobin Hood General Haynau Hanover or Saxe- Coburg ? Easter, 258.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Searle's ' Christ Church, Canter- bury' 'Yorkshire Archaeological Journal* Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY BOOK SALE: RICHARD SMITH'S LIBRARY.

ON Monday, 15 May, 1682, " at the Auction- House known by the Name of the Swan in Great St. Bartholomews -Close," began the dispersal of the extraordinary library formed by Richard Smith, of London. The Cata- logue (a copy, with the prices and purchasers' names, is before me) extends to 404 quarto pages. It is prefaced by an address ' To the Header,' subscribed " Richard Chiswell," from which I take the following interesting par- ticulars regarding the collector :

" The Gentleman that Collected it, was a Person infinitely Curious and Inquisitive after Books, and who suffered nothing considerable to escape him, that fell within the compass of his Learning ; for he had not the vanity of desiring to be Master of more than he knew how to use. He lived to a very great Age, and spent a good part of it, almost intirely in the search of Books : Being as constantly known every day to walk his Rounds through the Shops, as he sat down to Meals : where his great skill ana experience enabled him to make choice of what was not obvious to every Vulgar Eye. He lived in times, which ministred peculiar opportunities of meeting with Books, that are not every day brought into publick light ; and few eminent Libraries were Bought, where he had not the Liberty to pick and choose. And while others were forming Arms, and New-model- ling Kingdoms, his great Ambition was to become Master of a good Book. Hence arose as that vast number of his Books, so the choiceness and rarity

of the greatest part of them, and that of all kinds,

and in all sorts of Learning Nor was the Owner

of them a meer idle Possessor of so great a Treasure : For as he generally Collated his Books upon the Buying of them (upon which account the Buyer may rest pretty secure of their being perfect) so he did not barely turn over the Leaves, but observed the Defects of Impressions, and the ill arts used by many, compared the differences of Editions, con- cerning which and the like Cases, he has entred memorable and very useful remarks upon very many of the Books under his own hand, Observations wherein certainly never man was more Diligent and Industrious."

I may state that very many of the books are in Latin, and these I pass over. The limited selection which follows is entirely confined to works in English literature.

'* JEsop's Fables, in very old English, and printed by Rich. Pynson, no Title," realizes only Is. 2d, while in the very next lino that comparatively common book (and this the third edition, if I do not mistake) ** Adver- tisements from Parnassus, with the Politick Touchstone, by Bocalini," 1674, fetches the handsome price of 5s lOd. Chaucer's " Works of Antient Poetry ; best Edition (with a MS. of a Tale of Gamelyn, taken out of a MS. of Chaucer's Works in the University Library of Oxford)," 1602, goes for the sum of ll. 2s. There is a most covetable group of Caxtons, and the prices realized will be to most people a matter of astonishment : Caxton's ' Chro- nicle of England,' 1498, 13s. Qd.; Caxton's ' Translation of the Knights of the Toure, out of French,' 1483, 5s. Id. ; Caxton's "Mirrourof the World, &c. (in very old English)," 1480, 5s ; Caxton's " History of Jason touching the Conquest of the Golden-Fleece (in very old English)," 5s. Id.; Caxton's ' Recuile of the Histories of Troy, of the Destruction thereof,' &c., 1553, 3s. 7d; Caxton's 'Ancient Treatise, Intituled a Book of good Manners,' &c., 1486, 2s. Wd. ; Caxton's ' Translation of Cato, with many Hist, and Examples of Holy Fathers, and Ancient Chronicles,' &c., 1483, 4s. 2d; " Three Books more of the said Caxton (viz.), 1. Pilgrimage of the Soul. 2. Chastising of Godly Children. 3. The Rule of St. Benet (all in very old English)," 5s. 2d.; Caxton's " Translation of Virgil's ^Eneides, in English Prose," 1490. 3s.; Caxton's "Game of Chess ; it being Mr. Smith's Opinion ; one of the first Books which ever were printed in Engl. (with his Observations on the several Edi- tions of the same MS.)," 1474, 13s. 2d; Caxton's " Books entituled Vitas Patrum, or Lives of Old Ancient Fathers, Hermites, &c.," 1485, 8s. 4d ; Caxton's " Godfrey of Bulloigne, of the Siege and Conquest of Jerusalem (being K. Edward's the 4 th own Book)," 1481, 18s. 2d As a sort of set-off to these Caxton values,